Hello from Tamworth

S

stormboy2340

New elf
Joined
Dec 10, 2016
Messages
24
Location
Tamworth
Just thought I would say hi, I've been looking around these forums for a while trying to absorb as much information as possible. I have also read the manual several times....

Well now its time to bite the bullet and start preparing for next Christmas, I'm going to start simple with just a basic roof outline and maybe wall outline. I have decided to go with bullet type pixels mounted in 25mm pvc.

The software / hardware I'm looking to start out with is:

Falcon Player and Pi for running of show

Vixen for sequencing (I'm still undecided, I do find it easy to navigate, my only concerns is it doesn't seem to be as popular here in Aus, so help and documation might be hard to find. It is also lacking moving head control witch I would love to implement down the track)

PixLite-16-Long-Range-MkII for my first controller ( I am still a little confused with these. 100 universes 96 for E1.31 and 4 for DMX. So from what I can understand 96 E1.31 Universes split over 16 outputs with each output able to control 1020 pixles or 3060 channels per output. So one output from a receiver board would be able to control 1020 pixles. I am also having trouble getting my head around how you set it up in vixen as far as channels go. Do I combine the 16320 channels of E1.31 and 2048 channels of DMX and tell vixen I have 18368 of E1.31)


Sorry for the long post but I'm a little confused right now

Dave
 
Hi Dave,
Don't tell anyone I said this but xLights blows vixen out of the water....( i'd go with xlights...LOTS of support and tutorials and very active developer community)
cheers
Fing
 
Welcome to ACL...and I also would go XLights.... Not that I have used Vixen, but comparing the two and coming from Lightshow pro I decided to go Xlights.
 
Fing said:
Hi Dave,
Don't tell anyone I said this but xLights blows vixen out of the water....( i'd go with xlights...LOTS of support and tutorials and very active developer community)
cheers
Fing
Click to expand...

You had to go there didn't you Fing.

Dave,

Usually people would tell you to try both Vixen and Xlights and choose the best one that suites your needs and that you find the best. Sure there are more people in Australia that use Xlights, but that doesn't mean it's the best. There are plenty of Vixen users in AUS that will help you and a many more in the USA and they don't care where you live, so don't use that as a reason to select Xlights. We are all biased based on what we use as I think Vixen is more professional and polished while providing most of the feature and some different ones then Xlights..

They are both free, so use them both and make your own choice and whichever one you choose there will be people out there that will help you.

Geoff
 
Welcome to ACL, Lots of great advice and help here, but always take a look at both programming offerings as it wont cost you anything except a little of your time
 
Thanks everyone.

Well I've spent the last couple of days playing around with xlights and I'm starting to get a feel for it. I think its the sequencer I'll use, still working out what all the effects do and how I can use them.
Do you think it is worth purchasing a sequence just to see how experienced users use the different effects
 
I thought about purchasing a seq, but there are a number of shared sequences on a Google Drive or some one from this forum will share a sequence or two with you do you can see how others do it. At the moment I am at work and don't have a link to the Google Drive. I will post it when I get home if someone hasn't done it. Please watch Keiths youtube video on importing sequences into Xlights. You will find that really beneficial. Welcome to a lot of pixel fun..
 
Hello from Calala

My recommendation is to purchase the PixLite-16-MkII not the extended edition. if you are only running lights within your front yard (as seen from your videos) the normal edition should be fine.
I was unable to run my show last year as I moved house (I moved 2 blocks) but PM me and I can give you some tips on setting up and wiring

cheers
Ben
BTW Finally someone else that will also have proper lights in the area
 
I used Vixen and then switched to xLights in 2016 and I agree that it is worth trying them both. I'm happy to give out sequences for either of them minus the audio (which can be added back in). The viewers don't care what software you use. It's nice when there is one who's interested in the technical side of things but most aren't. They're just happy to watch the display.
 
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